What are you listening to now? : Non-metal Edition
Vicious Circle - "Live at the Prince of Wales" (1985)
A 25-song live set that showcases the Melbourne hardcore acts craft very well. The vocals sound much more like Henry Rollins here & I wonder if it might be a different singer. I tend to like the more violent & up-tempo material best & the energy reminds me quite a bit of the early Mayhem works which is significant in the influence that hardcore punk had on them as arists.
For fans of Condemned?, Black Flag & early Depression.
Vicious Circle/Perdition - "Aüssie Cörè - Sèärch För Thè Sölütiön? / A Torturing Compilation" split album (1985)
Vicious Circle - "Search for the Solution!!" single (1985)
Vicious Circle/Youth Brigade - "Epitaph/Care" split album (1986)
Vicious Circle - "The Price of Progress" (1985)
During my recent investigation into the earliest roots of the Australian extreme metal scene, I discovered that Melbourne hardcore punk outfit Vicious Circle are often referred to as a crossover thrash act which is interesting because I picked up some of their albums (including this one) through the older skater kids at my high school when I was a youngster but don't recall thinking that their earlier works were particularly thrashy. Over the past week I've digested Vicious Circle's two 1984 demo tapes "Circle of the Doomed" & "Foolish Ideas", their 1985 live cassette "Live at the Prince of Wales", their 1985 "Search for the Solution!!" single as well as their two split releases with Perdition & Youth Brigade but I don't think I've encountered a genuine thrash tune as yet. That brings me to the band's 1985 debut full-length "The Price of Progress" which I received along with a whole bunch of hardcore-oriented material from bands like Massappeal, Condemned? & Depression back in the very early 1990's. This time though, I'll be listened with some more educated ears & will be paying specific attention to the inclusion of metal components in Vicious Circle's sound to see if these Victorians have any right to be included in the early Aussie thrash discussion.
"The Price of Progress" takes the exact same musical approach as Vicious Circle's demo material to be honest & you won't find any metal on offer here. Instead, you can expect to receive a fairly stock-standard version of hardcore punk but one that's been very well written & executed. I've encountered almost all of the fifteen songs included on the other releases I mentioned above but this time they've been delivered with a greatly improved production job that better highlights Vicious Circle's natural energy. The tempos are generally kept high with the high-octane delivery making for a great record to thrash around your bedroom to. Vocalist Paul Lindsay does an excellent job at spitting out his socially & politically fueled lyrics & is the focal point of Vicious Circle's sound while the instrumentation does tend to be fairly formulaic in structure with a lot of fast down-picking & palm-muting going on in classic punk style.
Most of this material is very enjoyable, even though I wouldn't say that I'm a hardcore afficionado by any stretch of the imagination. I just know good song-writing when I hear it & there's plenty of that on offer here. There are a few flatter tunes amongst the fifteen on offer though with "Scream", "Distorted Truth" & particularly the noticeably weak "Sleep Talk" failing to connect with me. The more appealing songs tend to be the more hectic & violent ones in my opinion which is perhaps not all that surprising given my taste profile. The versions of "Public Minister" & Bloodrace" that are included are much better than the ones that first appeared on 1984's "Circle of the Doomed" demo & sit amongst of the highlights of the album along with the excellent "Factors". The rest of the material is all more than acceptable, even though I wouldn't suggest that much of it is particularly essential as it's simply replicating a tried & tested model of punk music.
If you're a big hardcore fan then you can do a lot worse than to explore "The Price of Progress" as it's a more than decent punk record that I'd take over many of the more recognised international hardcore records of the time (Black Flag's "My War", Suicidal Tendencies' "Join the Army", English Dogs' "Invasion of the Porky Men", DYS' self-titled album, Ugly Americans' "Who's Been Sleeping… In My Bed", etc). It's not, however, one that should be commanding a position on the Metal Academy database & it'll be interesting to see how Vicious Circle's sound develops over the next couple of releases because I can't see why the band have been linked to crossover thrash on the evidence of their debut album. Perhaps Depression were leading the way in the Aussie hardcore scene but Vicious Circle were certainly following closely behind & looking over their shoulder at bands like Condemned? & Gash.
For fans of Black Flag, Condemned? & early Depression.
3.5/5
Permanent Damage - "Permanent Damage" E.P. (1985)
The debut release from this Melbourne hardcore punk band that would go on to make some pretty decent crossover thrash in the future.
For fans of Vicious Circle, Condemned? & early Depression.
Vicious Circle - "Reflections" (1986)
The 1986 "Reflections" sophomore album from Melbourne hardcore punk crew Vicious Circle is another release that I picked up from the older skaters at my high school in the late 1980's & early 1990's along with several of the band's other releases. Those kids tended to gravitate towards thrash metal, crossover thrash & hardcore punk so I found myself picking up some fairly underground shit from them but never spent much time in trying to genre tag most of it. We simply didn't give a fuck about that sort of thing back in the day & if it had good energy then I was generally up for it. Even if I maybe didn't know the technicalities of what defined those subgenres just yet, I could easily tell that the early Vicious Circle releases weren't exactly metal &, as with their 1985 debut album "The Price of Progress", I tended to toss "Reflections" aside fairly quickly in favour of the more metal releases of the time. With the discovery that other websites like RateYourMusic & Metal Archives deem Vicious Circle to be a metal band of some description though, I thought it was time to give "Reflections" another chance to win me over, this time with some more educated & experienced ears.
To be fair, the early Vicious Circle releases weren't terribly adventurous. Their sound tended to stick within the confines of the stock-standard hardcore punk model with little attempt to expand their sound being taken but 1986's "Hidden-Supervision?" single had seen the band starting to experiment a little. The A side "A Nightmare So Quick" took an acoustic guitar-driven post-punk direction while the B side "Viewing Time" qualifies as one of the very earliest Aussie crossover thrash tunes. "Reflections" saw Vicious Circle looking to continue to explore new territory while including enough of their classic hardcore material to keep their die-hard fans happy. This is perhaps its major weakness in many respects as it ends up satisfying neither camp & comes across as a little wishy washy when viewed holistically. The "Circle of the Doomed" & "Foolish Ideas" demo tapes & the debut album all offered enough aggression & youthful vitality to keep me interested throughout but "Reflections" tends to taint that strength with misguided attempts to do something fresh & new. The idea was admirable enough but I'm afraid the execution leaves a bit to be desired with front man Paul Lindsay making a meal of the tracks that required a little more nuance & subtlety.
It's an unusual album in some respects because the wins certainly outweigh the failures reasonably comfortably but the few duds included tend to be weak enough to taint the overall album. The obvious protagonist in bringing "Reflections" down is the lengthy post-punk centrepiece of a title track which is completely destroyed by Lindsay who fumbles his way through a strained & consistently pitchy performance over some quite interesting acoustic guitar work for far more time than was ever warranted. The more commercial hard rock sound of "Hope & Wait" didn't work for Vicious Circle either & there are a couple of conventional punk rock tunes included with mixed results too. "Under the Surface" simply sounding a bit flat to me while closer "Inside Operation" is actually a pretty reasonable way to finish the tracklisting. The material that offers me the most appeal can unsurprisingly be found in the more up-tempo & violent hardcore-oriented material with "Mass Confusion" being the clear highlight as far as I'm concerned.
"Reflections" isn't an awful record by any stretch of the imagination but it is a pretty forgettable one & I tend to think that it makes for better playlist material than it does an overall album. There are just too many flaws for it to work as an holistic package in my opinion & I definitely prefer "The Price of Progress" over it. In fact, I'd have to suggest that I'd take either of Vicious Circle's 1984 demo tapes over EITHER album to be honest. Is there any metal here though? Well... yeah, I'd suggest that opening track "Common Denominator" should qualify as speed metal interestingly enough. I don't think there's anything else here that sounds remotely metal though so I can't understand why anyone would be stretching the friendship far enough to drag "Reflections" into crossover thrash discussions. Give this one a miss & head back to Vicious Circle's 1984/85 releases if you're looking for some more than decent early Australian hardcore punk though gang.
For fans of early Depression, Condemned? & Permanent Damage.
3/5
A few motivational epic electronic alt-rock ballads that I like from another one of my brother's favorite bands:
Vicious Circle - "Rhyme with Reason" (1987)
It's been interesting to revisit the (alleged) third album from Melbourne hardcore punks Vicious Circle after so many years this week because it immediately raised some with me about its legitimacy as a genuine album. I don't recall having these thoughts when I first encountered the album as a teenager but it very soon became obvious that 1987's "Rhyme with Reason" record was more of a compilation of previously available material than it was the brand-new record that the vast majority of internet resources seem to have blindly taken it for. Those critics have clearly never heard Vicious Circle's 1986 "Reflections" album though as ten of the thirteen tracks included on "Rhyme with Reason" were taken from that record. Another (i.e. experimental post-punk song "Nightmare So Quick") has been borrowed from 1986's "Hidden-Supervision?" single too so fans of Vicious Circle's previous work should be aware of that before running off to purchase the vinyl at great expense. I could only really identify one short line that read "Note that 'Rhyme With Reason' was in part a compilation of material that had previously been issued in the Australian market" on the Discogs page for the release which confirmed my suspicions that these tracks are in fact the same versions that can be found on the disappointing "Reflections". That doesn't make "Rhyme with Reason" a redundant release though. On the contrary, it makes "Reflections" one as "Rhyme with Reason" manages to rectify some of the flaws in Vicious Circle's sophomore album by omitting a couple of the weaker songs that I felt tarnished it. It also adds a couple of fairly raw new tracks that we hadn't heard from the band before, admittedly with mixed results though to be fair.
As with Vicious Circle's earlier releases, I really struggle with the idea of "Rhyme with Reason" having much to do with the crossover thrash tag it so often seems to attract. There's really only a single track included that fits that mold in the new song "Turn to Stone" which is also one of the two weaker numbers that form an unfortunate mid-album quality dip with the other being the heavy metal/hard rock number "Hope & Wait" which I didn't enjoy much on "Reflections" either. The vast majority of the album still falls into hardcore punk territory although I'd suggest that there is enough conventional punk rock in brand-new opening track "Rule 17" & closer "Inside Operation" for it to be claimed as an influence, along with post-punk which shows its head on "Nightmare So Quick" & a good chunk of "Inside Operation" too. There's a touch less of the experimentation that was attempted on "Reflections" with "Rhyme with Reason" feeling a little more traditional in terms of hardcore punk, mainly because of the omission of the title track from "Reflections" which was overly long & also pretty awful to be fair.
"Rhyme with Reason" doesn't possess too much in the way of highlights but the vast majority of the material is enjoyable enough. As with "Reflections", the excellent hardcore punk tune "Mass Confusion" once again represents the clear high point of the record for me & it's a shame that none of the other material could match it because there was a fair bit of potential in some of these tracks. As it stands though, "Rhyme with Reason" ends up being another pretty enjoyable hardcore record from Vicious Circle but, as with their earlier releases, it still hasn't managed to become one that I can see myself returning to in the future. Even though I quite like it, I do tend to find myself favouring Vicious Circle's earlier material over "Rhyme with Reason" with their earliest demo recordings still offering me the most in terms of appeal. "The Price of Progress" is my preference of their first three full-length albums (if we're gonna include "Rhyme with Reason" as one of those like the rest of the internet seems to). Still, I can't deny the relevance of this record in terms of the band's overall discography as I'd highly recommend that you skip "Reflections" altogether & go direct to the stronger "Rhyme with Reason" if you're hellbent on exploring the Melbourne punks back catalogue.
For fans of early Permanent Damage, Condemned? & Depression.
3.5/5
I honestly wasn't expecting Linkin Park to come back after the tragic passing of Chester Bennington, but 7 years later, here we are. Linkin Park shocked the world with their reformation with new members vocalist Emily Armstrong (from Dead Sara) with drummer Colin Brittain (replacing Rob Bourdon who declined to return). It was a good shock for many, but longtime fans weren't pleased. Replacing Chester was considered blasphemous enough, but replacing him with a scientologist associated with a convicted rapist?! Emily would later clarify that she condemns the crimes of the person in question, Danny Masterson. The band would also make it clear that Emily won't be a direct replacement for Chester, but rather a brand new chapter for the band while never forgetting Chester's legacy. And I agree with the band there!
From the first singles of their new album From Zero to the new higher-tuned live renditions of the band's classic hits, Emily has proven to be a powerhouse vocalist while respectfully not hogging the spotlight from Chester. One moment she can sing pleasant poppy singing, and the next she can unleash some vicious metal screams. For the music... Well, to recap the band's journey with Chester, we have the nu metal of Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the more alternative Minutes to Midnight, the experimental A Thousand Suns, the electronic Living Things, the return to heaviness in The Hunting Party, and the weak poppy One More Light. From Zero very well throws back to all those eras.
The songs I enjoy are (of course) the heavier ones. "The Emptiness Machine" is more of a punky alt-rock track, but it's the perfect single to mark Emily's incredible debut. The rest of the album's heavy side is the only metal you're getting here, not enough to primarily count as metal. "Heavy is the Crown", which is the main theme song for this year's League of Legends World Championship, greatly throws back to "Faint" in the pace and instrumentation, along with "Given Up" in the massive 16-second scream in the bridge, "THIS IS WHAT YOU ASKED FOOOOOOOORRRRRR!!!!!!" The raw heavy "Casualty" is a short metallic riff monster, sounding fresh out of The Hunting Party. "Two Faced" is my favorite track of the album, basically a better revamp of "Figure.09" with killer heavy riffing. In the bridge, Emily quietly whispers "I can’t hear myself think" before launching into an awesome "One Step Closer"-esque yell-fest, "STOP YELLING AT ME!!!" The only song from the heavy side I'm not too fond of is "IGYEIH" which isn't well-executed.
The softer side is, for the most part, the weaker side for me. "Cut the Bridge" doesn't have the right structural flow, and it sounds too much like the awful "Bleed It Out". Pop-rocker "Over Each Other" has some anthemic vibes, but I just find it OK. "Overflow" is the weakest track here, like a dark trap blend of A Thousand Suns and One More Light. "Stained" I can do without Emily's attempt to sound like Rihanna in the chorus. The only song from the soft side I like is the epic emotional closing track, "Good Things Go".
From Zero marks a decent comeback for arguably the biggest rock band today. They've reminded us greatly about what they have been from their early days as Xero to the present day. Though it would've been better (and more metal) if they replaced a couple soft tracks with heavy ones. Nonetheless, welcome back, Linkin Park! RIP Chester....
3/5
Favorites (only tracks I really like): "The Emptiness Machine", "Heavy is the Crown", "Casualty", "Two Faced", "Good Things Go"
After reviewing the new Linkin Park album From Zero, I decided it was time for me to share my thoughts on the band's final album with Chester Bennington, One More Light. The world was struck by a sudden tragedy when Chester committed suicide just two months after this album's release. So One More Light ended up being his swansong album. Now here's something I don't wanna say, but I feel like I should for my true opinion... F*** THIS. I never asked them to replace their nu/rap metal/rock with this radio pop sh*t. I swear some of these songs sound like they were written by Justin Bieber.
Only a couple of these tracks I can stand, one of them being "Good Goodbye", with its strike of synergy within the rap verses by Mike Shinoda, Pusha T, and Stormzy. Interesting how a rap track is one of the only appealing songs in this album for me, but it is what it is. The other one of those two tracks, the title track is the final released single from that album and having all its soft emotional melancholy, it's enough to make even the toughest music listener shed tears. I miss Chester so much...
Everything else here can range from meh to g****mn awful, with the reggae-ish "Invisible", the sample-filled "Sorry for Now", the half-baked "Halfway Right", and the folk-esque "Sharp Edges". An unused track from this album's sessions, "Friendly Fire" would later be completed and appear in the compilation album Papercuts. It's actually a true highlight for that compilation and Chester's vocals give me a pleasant feeling of both sorrow and bliss. If that song was able to make into One More Light as its closing track, I would give this album an extra half-star or whole star in the rating.
It's hard to criticize someone's final work before their death without sounding like an a**, but what else can I say about the disasterpiece that is One More Light? As much as I agree that Chester was an incredible part of Linkin Park and the modern rock/metal scene who shall have our respect, this is not the farewell that I, along with longtime fans, really want from him. May he rest in peace, and this sh*tty offering rust in pieces....
2/5
Favorites (only tracks I like): "Good Goodbye", "One More Light"
SSDC - "State Sponsored Dissident Crucifixion" demo (1987)
Aussie hardcore punk. There's a little bit of metal here & there but the references to early thrash & crossover are drastically overstated.
Vicious Circle - "Hope & Wait" E.P. (1987)
My recent explorations of the earliest roots of the Australian extreme metal scene have seen me spending far more time with Melbourne hardcore punk outfit Vicious Circle than I'd bargained for. While I was certainly aware of the band & owned dubbed copies of a few of their albums as a kid, I never gave them much of my attention & can't say that I ever thought of them as a genuine crossover thrash artist. That position hasn't changed much in the current day either with none of Vicious Circle's early material fitting the bill, most of it sitting mainly in punk territory. I hadn't been exposed to their 1987 "Hope & Wait" E.P. before now though so I was hoping that perhaps it might be at least partially responsible for the band's metal status on other well-known websites. "Hope & Wait" was the title of a song from the Victorian's album from earlier the same year so the E.P. seemed to be more of an extended single & has been pretty hard to track down but I finally managed to locate it & have given it a few listens this morning, only to discover that it's a fairly inconsequential record in Vicious Circle's back catalogue.
The "Hope & Wait" E.P. includes four short songs spanning just fifteen minutes, three of which were already available on 1987's "Rhyme with Reason" album which was more of a compilation of material that was recorded at different points in Vicious Circle's recent past. Most of that material was drawn from 1986's disappointing "Reflections" sophomore album but there were also a couple of new tracks included with both of them reappearing here. The E.P. was recorded at Sound Concept Studios in 1987 & sports a fairly raw production job with a tinny guitar sound but it suits the material quite well & affords all of the instruments plenty of room to move. Tracks like "Rule 17" & "Turn to Stone" sounded a little out of place on "Rhyme with Reason" given that their production was so obviously different from the rest of the material but here we see the four songs sounding much more unified, even if Vicious Circle do explore a few different subgenres across the short tracklisting.
Once again, I do have to question Vicious Circle's claims to a crossover thrash tag because there's really only one song that fits the bill here in the fairly average "Turn to Stone". The opening title track sits somewhere between hard rock & heavy metal, "Rule 17" is more of a conventional punk rock outing & "Warhol Crazy" (the only new track included & the only reason for the more diehard punters to purchase "Hope & Wait") sees the band returning to their hardcore punk roots. Despite the variation, I think the hardcore punk tag fits much better as a generic tag for this collection of songs in much the same way as it did for Vicious Circle's last few releases. This record does sound a little more raw due to the tinny production job I mentioned earlier but the tracks themselves aren't wildly different from anything we'd heard from these punks previously, especially given that this was now the third Vicious Circle release to feature "Hope & Wait" which is a song that I still haven't taken much of a shining to. I do enjoy "Rule 17" & "Warhol Crazy" though which goes further to enforce my existing position that Vicious Circle should probably have simply stuck to their hardcore guns as they seem to be a better punk band than they are when they're exploring a wider musical palate with front man Paul Lindsay's snot-nosed delivery always ensuring that Vicious Circle's punk credentials are kept intact.
At the end of the day, I find it hard to find any reason why anyone would need to own "Hope & Wait". Perhaps the more obsessive fan might need to own the only new track here in "Warhol Crazy" but anyone else would be better served by investing in the "Rhyme with Reason" album as it's a more consistent & enjoyable record than this one & offers a lot more value for money too. I'm sure there was a reason for the release of "Hope & Wait" from a record company perspective but I'm not really seeing it personally. It's certainly not horrible but it is a little flat & doesn't do much to enhance Vicious Circle's existing reputation as one of the leaders of the Aussie hardcore scene.
For fans of early Depression, Condemned? & Permanent Damage.
3/5
Back on soundtracks. Yesterday it was the first Land Before Time (gorgeous work), and right now it's Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Permanent Damage - "End of Innocence" (1987)
It was only within the last year that I really discovered the sole full-length album from Melbourne hardcore punk act Permanent Damage & the experience excited me. The crossover thrash component of the album saw me getting a little over-enthusiastic & I feel like I jumped the gun a little bit on claiming "End of Innocence" as an unheralded gem of the early crossover movement. This is my first revisit since that time & I feel like I've been able to see through the weeds a little bit better this time & have come out with a slightly different take on it. I still enjoy the album quite a bit, perhaps even more than I did on those initial sessions, but the additional scrutiny I've given the album on a track-by-track basis has seen me questioning my previous position a bit, not in relation to the merits of "End of Innocence" as a piece of art but more around the validity of Permanent Damage's claims to a place at the Metal Academy table.
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself experimenting with Permanent Damage's earlier self-titled single from 1985, a three-song affair that offered nothing much in the way of metal & which led me to this reassessment of the band's 1987 album. As with the other Melbourne hardcore acts I've been playing around with in recent months (see Depression, Vicious Circle, etc.), Permanent Damage started out as a pure punk outfit before allowing the surging global metal movement to infiltrate their sound. By the time the band had entered the studio to record "End of Innocence" they were a much more potent force though & one has to wonder about how much these underground acts influenced each other in this regard. There had been significant changes to Permanent Damage's lineup in the two years since the single with original drummer Jenk having been replaced by Danny O'Callahan who also spent some time with fellow Melbourne hardcore/crossover band Depression where Jenk's brother Spike had handled the vocal duties during their early days so the scene was certainly a little bit incestuous at the time. Peter Young had also been added as a second guitarist with Young handling the lead duties while Izy Semovic played the supporting rhythm guitar role. It's unclear as to how much of an impact these changes had had on Permanent Damage's sound (if any) but if I had to guess I'd say that Permanent Damage had picked up a bit of their more metallic direction from Depression who were the more established band at the time.
"End of Innocence" was recorded in two days at S.S. Studios in Sydney & was mastered at the legendary Studio 301 which is, interestingly enough, where I had my own solo CD mastered back in 1999. It sounds great too with the production job nicely balancing the rawness of a live hardcore band with the clarity required to give it a level of accessibility. The album opens in a really energetic fashion with three of the thrashier songs landing in quick succession. Front man Manny Maragoudakis does a great job at summoning the audience to throw themselves around the house, car, mosh pit or any other venue they may have chosen for the task & I find him to be quite a charismatic figure whose use of phrasing is quite captivating at times. The metal component starts to take a backward seat through the middle of the album though with hardcore punk being the dominant force across the majority of the record, so much so that I've had to rethink my earlier position on Permanent Damage's right to be here at the Academy. Overall, I think I was a little hasty in awarding them a crossover thrash badge because I now feel that that was perhaps a little ambitious. Of the sixteen tracks on offer here, I'd suggest that only five of them really warrant a thrash tag which isn't enough for me to go with a dual tag. The thrash component ends up being more of an influence than a protagonist when the album is viewed holistically so I've been forced to back down on my previous position in this regard.
Despite this revelation, I've still found myself enjoying "End of Innocence" quite a bit & it's definitely worth a few listens for fans of the hardcore sound. Album highlight "Victim of Misery" is honestly one of the best hardcore tracks I've ever heard & has thoroughly blown me away this week with me repeatedly reaching for the skip button to replay it while taking the long drive to work each morning. Crossover thrash opener "Warcry" is also really strong, as is energetic hardcore outing "Sniff Your Defeat". There are only a couple of flatter moments across the sixteen tracks too with the hardcore/crossover hybrid "Live for Life" & the lighter-weight hardcore number "Kill for Lies" both falling a little short of the mark for me personally. Still, it's hard to be too critical because the track lengths are quite short which means that any blemishes are short-lived. During the back end of the album you can also find a couple of more expansive & experimental tracks that add some interest with both the title track & closer "Time" sitting further over into post-hardcore territory than they do your more frantic & red-blooded hardcore punk space.
While I'm disappointed that I can no longer consider "End of Innocence" as one of my favourite crossover thrash records, I am excited that I've discovered yet another world class Aussie hardcore record. I honestly had no idea that we had so many great hardcore bands during the 1980's & I think Melbourne must have been a great place to be if you were a snot-nosed mohawk-wearing punk rocker at the time. I don't think too many fans of the genre will be disappointed with "End of Innocence" even if it's perhaps not quite as vital or as metal as the better Depression work from the same period.
For fans of Depression, Condemned? & Vicious Circle.
3.5/5
Toiday I got through some "albums" by a powerviolence band called Sidetracked. They're always writing the same two-minute album full of five-fifteen second bursts of powerviolence, and there's rarely any creativity, but the EP's have made excellent fodder to balance he ratings on my log.
I also went through a couple albums in the "new romantic" scene, two by Icehouse and Flesh + Blood by Roxy Music. Now I'm on the soundtrack to Millennium Actress. I went on a Susumu Hirasawa binge a while back, so if I had known he had done the soundtrack to Millennium Actress, I'd have gotten on that during the binge. I got through six of his albums, all impressive, a couple near-genius. His biggest flaw seems to be drawing out his songs at times, and this often effects his albums. otherwise, he's an atmospheric genius with impressive range.
Depression - "Hardcore History 1982-1986" compilation (1988)
A compilation of this highly underrated Melbourne hardcore punk outfit's early works including some of Australia's earilest crossover thrash material.
For fans of Vicious Circle, Condemned? & Permanent Damage.
Vicious Circle - "Still Born" compilation (1988)
A collection of some of this Melbourne hardcore punk outfit's early material including a few demos, alternate mixes & unreleased tracks. It's not bad either.
For fans of Depression, Condemned? & Permanent Damage.
3.5/5
Been chilling out at home with my daughters today. Generally cleaning, playing & swimming in the pool. Pulled out some very appropriate soundtracks from my past.
Gustavo Cerati - "Bocanada" (1999)
Akira Yamaoka - "Silent Hill 3" (2003)
Boards of Canada - "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country" E.P. (2000)
Gorillaz - "Demon Days Live at the Manchester Opera House" (2011)
Taking a trip back to the early 1990's chillout boom while preparing for the girls to wake up on Xmas morning:
Mappa Mundi - "Musaics" (1990)
Art of Noise - "The Ambient Collection" (1990)
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - "Mustt Mustt" (1990)
Enigma - "MCMXC a.D." (1990)
The Durutti Columns - "Obey the Time" (1990)
The Art of Noise - "Moments in Love" single (1985)
Quiet Force - "Flow" (1988)
German electronic/new age.
Carlton - "The Call Is Strong" (1990)
Early Bristol trip hop from a vocalist who is best known for her contributions to one of my all-time favourite bands in Massive Attack.